Social Learning Theory (Observational Learning) and Miscellaneous

1. Social Learning Theory (Observational Learning) and Miscellaneous

2. (Spiral) Social Learning Theory Video Clip 8 minutes • Task #1: Write 10 main points focusing on the studies and facts in the clip • Task #2: Name 10 behaviors that you have learned at least in part through observation. • Task #3: Infer 3-4 steps for how to learn by observation. Number them!

3. Myers, Module 25, pgs. 315-321

4. Observational Learning: Basic Processes How close were you? • Albert Bandura (1977, 1986) • Social Learning Theory: an organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of others (models) • Vicarious conditioning- classical and operant conditioning can take place vicariously through observational learning • Model: someone you observe and learn from • 4 key processes • attention- pay attention to another person’s behavior and its consequences • retention- store a mental representation of what you have seen in your memory • reproduction- convert your stored mental representation into behavior • motivation- you encounter a situation where the observed response will pay off, so you perform the behavior • acquisition vs. performance- people emit only those responses that they predict will be reinforced

5. (Spiral) Famous Studies Rotations: Social Learning Theory • #12: “See Aggression, Do Aggression.” Study on pgs. 38-41 in PDF document. • Summarize the following in 5 points including procedure, results, and implications.

6. (Spiral) Observational Learning Quiz Activity • Read through Myers, Module 25, pgs. 315-321. • You will be assigned a group and a section. Write one question that captures a key idea of each section. • Mirrors in the Brain • Bandura’s Experiments (something we don’t know yet) • Prosocial Effects • Antisocial Effects • After writing your own question, get together with 3 other people (from the 3 other groups). Give them your question, but not the answer. They will give you their questions, and you will write them down. Then, answer the questions using the book.

7. (Spiral) Learning FRQ Practice • Cletus, a slack-jawed yokel, is run over by his tractor, at which point he develops a fear of farm machinery. His wife helps him overcome this fear by dousing his pillows with pickle juice when he tries to avoid work by staying in his cot, and cooking him an extra nice pot of road kill stew for breakfast when he gets up to work. Finally, his mentor, an old farmer down the road, brings in a heck of a crop, and Cletus watches him the next year to learn his methods. • Explain specifically how the following perspectives apply to this story. Use AS MUCH specific vocabulary AS YOU CAN. • Classical conditioning • Operant conditioning • Social Learning Theory (Observational Learning)

8. Cletus, a slack-jawed yokel, is run over by his tractor, at which point he develops a fear of farm machinery. His wife helps him overcome this fear by dousing his pillows with pickle juice when he tries to avoid work by staying in his cot, and cooking him an extra nice pot of road kill stew for breakfast when he gets up to work. Finally, his mentor, an old farmer down the road, brings in a heck of a crop, and Cletus watches him the next year to learn his methods. • Explain specifically how the following perspectives apply to this story. Use AS MUCH specific vocabulary AS YOU CAN. • Classical conditioning • Operant conditioning • Social Learning Theory (Observational Learning) _______/9

9. A Really Great FRQ • Cletus’ story illustrates Classical Conditioning because his accident (the unconditioned stimulus) becomes associated with tractors (the conditioned stimulus), and this stimulus then generalizes to all farm machinery. Now, when Cletus tries to work in the fields, the sight of farm machinery triggers a conditioned response that is undesirable, though the story doesn’t specify what it is. Whatever it is, the feeling resulted from his original accident and has become associated now with machinery. The feeling causes Cletus to exhibit avoidance (not working on his farm). • Operant conditioning is evident by the reinforcements and punishments Cletus’ wife uses. She pour pickle juice (an aversive stimulus) on his pillow to positively punish him for not working, thus decreasing that response and shaping him to work. She also positively reinforces Cletus for working by cooking him stew for breakfast, which is presumably something he likes. Cletus’ propensity to work is thus strengthened, and he is shaped to acquire the behavior to work more often. • Social Learning Theory is evident in the old mentor farmer who lives down the road. He is Cletus model, as Cletus observes the desirable effect of this farmers work (a great crop) and then tries to emulate the farmer’s behavior the next year. The great crop catches Cletus’ attention, which serves as a motivation for Cletus to try to imitate him. He tries to retain this farmer’s methods by watching him and creating a mental image of how the old farmer farms. Lastly, the story implies that he will try to reproduce the farmer’s behavior to reach similar crop success.

10. Changes in Our Understandingof Conditioning • Biological Constraints on Conditioning • Instinctive Drift- The case of the miserly raccoons. You can train a behavior into an organism UNLESS the conditioning defies that organism’s instinct. • Conditioned Taste Aversion- Food is an exception to the usual rules of Classical Conditioning because of natural selection. Usually, the stimulus and the response must be seconds apart to be effective. • Preparedness and Phobias- Phobias that protected our ancestors are more easily trained into us (e.g. fear of snakes)

11. Changes in Our Understandingof Conditioning • Evolutionary Perspectives on learning- basic mechanisms of learning are similar across species but these mechanisms have sometimes been modified as species have adapted to the specialized demands of their environments • Cognitive Influences on Conditioning- Giving ourselves more credit • Signal relations- species predict (which requires thinking) whether the UCS is a good predictor of the CS and react accordingly. EX: Rats, flashing lights (CS), and (UCS) electric shocks • Response-outcome relations- people are capable of seeing whether certain stimuli are logically related to certain responses. EX: The Smash Mouth song and the final exam